Former state Rep. Eric Burlison has been open about his plans to run for a Missouri Senate seat in 2018. Thursday, the Republican offered more details about his upcoming campaign.

Burlison served eight years as a representative from southwest Springfield, but he has since moved to Battlefield — out of the district represented by Sen. Bob Dixon and into the region served by Sen. Jay Wasson, R-Nixa.

It is Wasson's district — which includes Christian County and rural Greene County — that Burlison, a process architect with Cerner, will seek to represent in 2018.

In an interview, Burlison told the News-Leader he had been getting out and meeting people all around his district and said he will officially launch his campaign in late summer or early fall. He added that when his family originally moved to southwest Missouri, they lived in Boaz.

"My views are southwest Missouri values," said Burlison, who wants to "empower families to be successful" by getting government out of their lives and allowing them to build up wealth.

He noted his past support of legislation to ban mandatory union dues (known as "right-to-work") and a bill meant to lift restrictions on moving companies as well as his personal Christian faith.

Burlison is a staunch Second Amendment supporter and sponsored a wide-ranging firearms bill in 2016 that removed the permitting requirement for carrying a concealed weapon, among other provisions.

In the Senate, if elected, Burlison would have more of a personal platform to speak and discuss issues important to him than in the House. He indicated to the News-Leader that he would be cautious in this regard.

"People who know me know that I'm careful when I speak," Burlison said. "I choose to speak when it is important and necessary (for constituents). ... If you talk often, what you say starts falling on deaf ears."